Drew “Morriarty” McWeeny did a nice interview with Marvel Studio’s president, Kevin Feige, at Hit Fix recently. You might be surprised that IRON MAN 2 came up during their discussion. Actually, before I get to any of that, it’s worth pointing out that Feige clarifies that Marvel’s made no formal announcement about Joss Whedon directing the AVENGERS movie yet. I thought he was officially attached to the movie a couple weeks ago (along with a re-write assignment on CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER’s script) but I guess that’s still just a rumor. So all enthusiastic Browncoats and DOLLHOUSE-haters alike can relax. For now, at least.
Other tidbits from their talk…
* Marvel really worked hard to make IRON MAN 2 accessible to new audiences while still building on what had come before. I'll say that writing a “modular” story is probably the hardest thing to do - - that is, something that’s both stand-alone and part of a greater storyline. There’s also the added dimension of putting in enough Marvel Comics allusions without confusing regular audiences. I can definitely say that IM2 pulls that off and I think their head are definitely in the right place to make this series of movies successful. There’s nothing more frustrating to me, as a viewer, than a movie that can even wrap its own sub-plots.
* Along that note, Feige also says that it was a delicate balance to leave room for improv and levity on set, while still making sure that all the necessary “big story points” were covered.
* Fiege describes Nick Fury as being like Gandalf from LORD OF THE RINGS. He’ll be a mysterious mentor who shows up to guide these heroes into the right direction, then disappears just as quickly.
* He also said that navigating the landmine of fandom’s rumor mill was a bit tricky. During production, they avoid reading message board responses lest they second guess themselves too much. They also were careful not to reveal too much in the trailers and, to do that, they had to consciously hide things like Whiplash’s final appearance from their marketing department.
-- Tom Pinchuk is the writer of UNIMAGINABLE for Arcana Comics and HYBRID BASTARDS! for Archaia. Pre-order the HYBRID BASTARDS! hardcover now on Amazon.com.
Log in to comment